Land-buying terms, defined

The words on a plot's paperwork in Telangana, each defined in two sentences. They give the general meaning; the documents for a particular plot are what govern it.

38 terms

Survey number: A survey number is the identifying number given to a parcel of land in the government's revenue survey of a village. Where a parcel has been divided, each part carries a sub-division number, such as 123/A or 123/1, which appears in revenue records and sale documents.
Pahani: Pahani, also called adangal, is the village revenue record in Telangana that describes each survey number, including its extent, the recorded holder, the person in occupation and the use of the land. It is a revenue record rather than a document of title, and it is read alongside the sale deeds and link documents.
Record of Rights (ROR-1B): ROR-1B is the Record of Rights register maintained for each village in Telangana, listing the holders of land with their survey numbers, extents and the nature of their rights. Its entries change through mutation when land is sold, gifted, inherited or partitioned.
Pattadar passbook: A pattadar passbook is issued by the revenue department to a landholder recorded as pattadar, listing the survey numbers and extents held in that person's name. It reflects the holding as shown in revenue records, which is why it is checked against the Record of Rights and the registered title documents.
Bhu Bharati: Bhu Bharati is the Telangana government's online land-records portal, set up under the Telangana Bhu Bharati (Record of Rights in Land) Act, and it replaced the earlier Dharani portal. It is used to view the Record of Rights and to apply for land services such as mutation and corrections to entries.
Mutation: Mutation is the updating of government records to show a new owner after land or property changes hands by sale, gift, inheritance or partition. For agricultural land it changes the revenue records, and for plots and buildings in urban areas it changes the local body's property records; mutation records ownership but does not by itself create title.
Legal heir certificate: A legal heir certificate is issued by the revenue authorities, usually the Tahsildar, naming the surviving family members of a deceased person. It is used for mutation and transfer of the deceased person's property, and it is distinct from a succession certificate, which a civil court issues.
Link documents: Link documents are the earlier sale deeds, gift deeds, partition deeds and other instruments that trace how a property passed from one owner to the next up to the present seller. Together they form the chain of title, and a legal scrutiny examines that chain for any gap or break.
Encumbrance Certificate (EC): An Encumbrance Certificate (EC) is issued by the Registration and Stamps Department and lists the registered transactions, such as sales, mortgages and leases, recorded against a property for a chosen period. It shows only transactions registered at a Sub-Registrar Office, so unregistered agreements and claims do not appear in it.
Title / legal scrutiny: Title scrutiny, also called legal scrutiny, is the examination by a lawyer of a property's title deeds, link documents, EC and revenue records to establish whether the seller has a clear right to sell. It usually ends in a written legal opinion that states the chain of title examined and any defects found.
General Power of Attorney (GPA): A General Power of Attorney (GPA) is a document by which a person authorises another to act on their behalf, which can include signing and registering documents for a property. A GPA does not by itself transfer ownership to the holder, and the authority it gives generally ends when it is revoked or when the person who granted it dies.
NALA (agricultural-land conversion): NALA, short for non-agricultural land assessment, is the common name for converting agricultural land to non-agricultural use under Telangana's land-conversion law. Agricultural land needs this conversion before it can be used lawfully for a layout or buildings, and the conversion is recorded in the revenue records.
Approved layout: An approved layout is a division of land into plots, roads and open spaces whose plan has been sanctioned by the competent planning authority, such as HMDA, DTCP or a local body. Each plot in it carries the number shown on the sanctioned plan, and the approval concerns planning rules rather than who owns the land.
Layout Permit / LP number: A Layout Permit (LP) number is the reference number the approving authority assigns to a sanctioned layout, and it is quoted on the approval proceedings and the approved plan. It identifies a layout approval rather than ownership of any plot, and a layout can hold a draft approval before the final LP is issued.
Mortgage plot: In layout approvals, mortgage plots are plots that the developer mortgages to the approving authority by a registered deed as a guarantee that roads, drainage and other layout works will be completed. They are released after the authority confirms the works are complete, and the term does not refer to plots pledged to a bank for a loan.
Open space (in layouts): In an approved layout, open space is the land reserved under layout rules for parks, playgrounds and other common use, and it is shown as such on the sanctioned plan. It cannot be sold as plots, and it is handed over to the local body along with the layout's roads.
Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS): The Layout Regularisation Scheme (LRS) is a government scheme under which plots in unapproved or unauthorised layouts can be regularised on application and payment of the charges notified by the government. Regularisation brings a plot within planning records, but it does not examine or confirm the applicant's title to the land.
Setback: A setback is the minimum distance that building rules require between a building and the boundaries of its plot, on the front, rear and sides. The required distances depend on factors such as plot size, the width of the abutting road and the height of the building, and they are checked when a building permission is issued.
Plot facing: Plot facing is the compass direction in which the plot's road-side boundary faces, so a plot with its road on the east is called east-facing. Facing is fixed by the layout plan, and buyers often consider it for Vastu and for sunlight and ventilation.
Corner plot premium: A corner plot premium is an additional charge that a seller sets for a plot at the meeting point of two roads, which gives the plot two road frontages. It is a commercial charge decided by the seller, not a government levy, and whether it applies is stated in the price terms.
Square yard: A square yard is the unit in which plot sizes are commonly stated in Telangana, and 1 square yard equals 9 square feet. It is written as sq yd and is called a gajam in Telugu and a gaj in Hindi.
Gunta and acre: A gunta and an acre are units of land area used in Telangana revenue records, where 1 acre equals 40 guntas and 4,840 square yards. One gunta is therefore 121 square yards, and larger parcels are usually described in acres and guntas together, such as 2 acres 15 guntas.
Token advance: A token advance is an initial payment made to reserve a plot before an agreement of sale is signed, and it is usually adjusted against the price. Under Section 13 of the RERA Act, 2016, a promoter may not accept more than ten per cent of the cost as an advance without first entering into a written, registered agreement for sale.
Agreement of sale: An agreement of sale is a written contract in which the seller agrees to sell and the buyer agrees to buy a property on stated terms, such as the price, the payment schedule and the timeline for the sale deed. It creates obligations between the parties but does not by itself transfer ownership, which passes only through a registered sale deed.
Sale deed: A sale deed is the document by which ownership of a property is transferred from the seller to the buyer. For immovable property it must be stamped and registered at the Sub-Registrar Office under the Registration Act, 1908, and it becomes part of the chain of title for later owners.
Sub-Registrar Office (SRO): A Sub-Registrar Office (SRO) is the office of the Registration and Stamps Department where documents such as sale deeds, gift deeds and mortgages are registered for properties within its jurisdiction. The Sub-Registrar records the identity of the parties, collects stamp duty and registration fees, and issues encumbrance certificates from the office's records.
Stamp duty: Stamp duty is a tax that the state levies on documents such as sale deeds, gift deeds and mortgage deeds, and it is paid when the document is registered. For a sale, it is calculated on the higher of the price stated in the deed and the government's market value for the property.
Market (guideline) value: Market value, also called guideline value, is the value per unit area fixed by the Registration and Stamps Department for land and buildings in each locality. It is the minimum base for calculating stamp duty and registration fees, and the government revises it from time to time independently of the prices at which properties actually sell.
TS-RERA registration number: A TS-RERA registration number is the unique number that the Telangana Real Estate Regulatory Authority issues to a project, or to a real estate agent, on registration under the RERA Act, 2016. Section 11(2) of the Act requires it to appear in the promoter's advertisements, and the project's filed details can be looked up by this number on the authority's portal.
RERA escrow account: A RERA escrow account, as it is commonly called, is the separate account in a scheduled bank in which a promoter must deposit 70% of the amounts received from buyers of a registered project, under Section 4(2)(l)(D) of the RERA Act, 2016. The money may be used only for the land and construction costs of that project, and withdrawals must be in proportion to the progress of the project and certified by an engineer, an architect and a chartered accountant.
Power of attorney (POA): A document by which you authorise someone else to act for you, for an NRI buyer usually to sign and present the sale deed. When the person giving it lives outside India, it is authenticated before a notary, magistrate or Indian consul, and in Telangana its stamp duty is paid within three months of its reaching India.
NRE account: Non-Resident External account: a rupee account an NRI holds in India, which may be used to pay for property. Its balances are repatriable and, according to the RBI, the income in it is exempt from income tax.
NRO account: Non-Resident Ordinary account: a rupee account for an NRI's income in India, which may be used to pay for property. Its balances can be remitted abroad up to USD 1 million a financial year, and the income in it is taxable.
FCNR(B) account: Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank) account: term deposits held in a freely convertible foreign currency, which may be used to pay for property. According to the RBI, the balances are repatriable and the income is exempt from income tax.
Overseas Citizen of India (OCI): A foreign citizen of Indian origin registered as an OCI cardholder. For buying and selling immovable property, the Ministry of Home Affairs gives OCI cardholders parity with NRIs: anything except agricultural land, plantation property or a farm house.
Apostille: A certificate that makes a public document from one country valid in another under the Hague Apostille Convention, of which India has been a member since 2005. The Ministry of External Affairs treats an apostilled document as legalised for all purposes in India; where the Convention does not apply with India, as with the UAE, the document goes through the Indian embassy or a consulate instead.
Repatriation: Taking money out of India to your country of residence. For property an NRI sells, the RBI lets the bank repatriate the proceeds where the property was bought in foreign exchange through banking channels or from an NRE or FCNR(B) account, for up to two residential properties.
Adjudication (of stamp duty): Having the proper stamp duty on a document determined and endorsed by the stamp authority. A document signed abroad, such as a power of attorney, is stamped after it arrives: Telangana's Registration & Stamps Department says within three months of its receipt, before the District Registrar.